Development of a protocol for fNIRS hyperscanning data collection in mother-infant dyads

• Grant number: 24/20665-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Alexandra Caldas Osório
• Grantee: Beatriz Pacheco Bispo
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06693-4 - The importance of social touch for infant social-emotional development: integrating neuroimaging, psychophysiological, endocrine, and behavioral evidence, AP.JP2
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/06180-8 - DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOCOL FOR FNIRS HYPERSCANNING DATA COLLECTION IN MOTHER-INFANT DYADS, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Interpersonal synchrony characterizes the human tendency to synchronize not only behavior, but also physiological and neural states during interactions (Feldman, 2007a; Feldman, 2012). Studies have shown that the development of interpersonal synchrony relies on parent-child interactions during the first years of life and it is associated with the later consolidation of complex social abilities (Feldman, 2007b). However, measuring synchrony can be challenging since human social interactions are complex and dynamic. Specifically in what concerns interbrain synchrony, hyperscanning is a cutting-edge technique that has been increasingly applied to the simultaneous measurement of brain activity in two or more individuals (Hasegawa et al., 2016; Levy et al., 2017; Nguyen et al., 2020b). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neuroimaging tool that can be used for hyperscanning assessment and has several advantages for the pediatric population, such as having greater motion tolerance than other technics (Gervain et al., 2023). Despite a recently growing body of studies using hyperscanning to assess neural synchrony during parent-child interactions, there are still many challenges for researchers aiming to use this methodology, such as how to optimize data collection procedures (Nguyen et al., 2020a). Thus, the aim of this research is to develop a protocol with guidelines for collecting neural synchrony data from infants and their parents using fNIRS hyperscanning.